Over the previous two weeks, I reviewed all 11 films in the Friday the 13th franchise. I reviewed the final film, appropriately enough, on Friday the 13th. Now that I’ve sat through all 11 of these films, I’d like to provide just ten thoughts in conclusion:
1) Have you seen Cabin In The Woods yet? While that brilliant film is obviously influenced by a lot of films, the Friday the 13th influence was especially obvious, right down to the crazy old man trying to let everyone know that they were doomed.
2) As for the Friday the 13th franchise itself, what is left to be said? I think my interest in these films comes from the fact that even though their critically reviled and utterly dismissed by many, they’ve managed to survive and they’re still being watched by viewers (like me) who weren’t even born and/or weren’t old enough to see the majority of them when they were first released in theaters. Like it or not — and again, this is a point that should be obvious to anyone who truly appreciated Cabin In The Woods — these films appeal to something primal in human nature.
3) The most frequent complaint made against the Friday the 13th franchise is that the films are anti-female. I don’t agree. I think that, unfortunately, a lot of people who watch these films are anti-female but I don’t think that the same can be said of the films themselves. Quite frankly, if I was ever cast in Friday the 13th, I would rather play a victim than a survivor because the victims are the ones that are remembered afterwards.
4) Instead of seeing the Friday the 13th films as some sort of attempt to punish women, I see them as simply being updated bits of American folklore. Those famous urban legends — the escaped mental patient with the hook hand, the vanishing hitchhiker — are about as close as America can get to having its own mythology and the Friday the 13th franchise (and similar horror films) are a reflection of that mythology.
5) Much like the scary story told at slumber party or around a campfire (not that I’ve been near a campfire though I have been to a few thousand slumber parties), Friday the 13th is meant to be a communal experience. It’s a chance to admit that we’re all scared of the dark. We scream and jump because, ultimately, it’s fun to do that in the safety of a theater or your own home.
6) Friday the 13th, as a franchise, was at its best when it kept things simple. As you may have noticed from my reviews, I struggled more with the gimmicky later films in the series than I did with the originals.
7) The first two Friday the 13th scenes are both excellent examples of how to use a low budget and a largely unknown cast to your best advantage. There is a lesson there for all aspiring filmmakers.
8) Having now rewatched the 11 films in the franchise, I have to say that I think that Part 4 is the best, followed by Part 2. Part 3 remains the worst while Jason Takes Manhattan is perhaps the most pointless. Ted White was the best Jason but Kane Hodder is a close second.
9) When I was reviewing these films, Peter M. Bracke’s book Crystal Lake Memories proved to be an invaluable resource. I highly recommend it to anyone who is interested in film, horror, or both.
10) Finally, did you all enjoy me devoting two weeks to reviewing one film franchise or were you thinking to yourself, “Oh my God, Lisa, give it a rest already!” I enjoyed writing them but, to be honest, I’m really in the mood for a romantic comedy now.
Well, that does it for Friday the 13th. Again, I hope everyone enjoyed revisiting this franchise with me and I hope that everyone will enjoy revisiting the James Bond films with me in October. As always, stay supple!
Through the Shattered Lens 
I really enjoyed reading your Friday The 13th write-ups, I’m going to miss ’em now that they’re over with!
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Well, there’s always the Halloween franchise…not to mention the Nightmare On Elm Street and the Hellraiser franchises. LOL
I have to agree with points 4 and 5.
With your 4th point it’s not just that it’s a franchise that plays on the American gothic mythology, but also one that played on what I call the interstate legends which sprung up during the 50’s when the country was finally fully connected by the interstate highway system.
Before that American horror was all about small towns and villages and the old world manor estates. After the system was put up the legends of the escaped mental patient with the hook hand appeared. Then the missing hitchhiker. Or my favorite of them all: the mysterious female hitchhiker who we later find out has been dead for years.
The Friday the 13th franchise has become part of Americana and I wouldn’t be surprised if every summer camp across the nation has their own take on the Jason story and made to sound real for the benefit of the young kids and teens who attend them year in and year out.
As for the 5th point I totally agree that this type of horror franchise must be enjoyed with a crowd. Just like The Cabin in The Woods the enjoyment comes from being part of a crowd experiencing the highs and lows of the horror being played out on the screen.
If the film is great then the reaction becomes magnified to such a level to rival any midnight screening of The Rocky Picture Horror Show. If the film is bad then everyone shares the experience of having to sit through it without the option of fast forwarding to the naked bits and gory payoffs. We don’t get that experience watching these films in the comfort of our own homes since we can always skip ahead to said naked bits and gory payoffs.
I’ve always thought that simpler is better when it came to horror. Once you add the gimmicks to try and keep horror fresh then it loses its primal appeal that caters to our primordial, almost genetically-imprinted fear of the dark and the unknown. It becomes less horror and more a sideshow that actually denigrates its audience as people who need ill-conceived tricks and gimmicks to entertain them.
It’s why I’ve always prefered the first three Romero zombie films as the best of that genre. They were simple stories about survival that never went for the gimmick, but instead took a premise and followed it through to its logical (for a horror film) conclusion.
Great series, Lisa, hopefully there’s more in the future. 🙂
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I occasionally encounter an attractive woman who says she loves horror films. Intrigued, I’ll say “Really? Which are your favorites?” Almost invariably, the response is something like “Oh, you know, ‘Friday The 13th’’, ‘Nightmare On Elm Street’, ‘My Bloody Valentine’…” Intrigue now turned to disappointment, I throw my drink in her face and shout “Philistine” before storming off. (It’s a matter of principle, at that point.)
Well, some of that may not be exactly true. I don’t drink alcohol, and I’ve never actually doused a woman with a Shirley Temple or a Diet Coke. But the frustration and disappointment are real enough.
But I’ll stop there, instead of launching into yet another unsolicited (though well-reasoned and righteous) diatribe. I’m not a fan of the slasher sub-genre. I think they are stupid films (having stopped there). However, I also enjoyed this thorough thematic analysis of the “Friday The 13th” series. And I may even make an effort to see a couple of the sequels. I suppose almost all of the “franchise” films will be, at least partly, if not completely bad. That’s the nature of film sequelization – redundancy, overextension (is “ridiculization” a word?) of the concept, disorientation/disconnection from the original premise – even if the first one was good, the follow-ups usually get progressively stupid. But the examination of mutual cultural influence, even with a bad film, can be interesting.
So I would like to see future serial review of this type. But promise us you won’t do it with romantic comedies. I’m begging you.
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Most slasher films tend to be bad because their filmmakers trying to imitate the successful ones.
Slasher films like Halloween and the gialli that came out of Italy during the 70’s and early 80’s were very good. The Italian ones were actually more like murder mystery thrillers that just happened to have gory effects.
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One of the more interesting things about the first Friday the 13th film was seeing just how much it really was an American version of an Italian giallo, right down to having the killer wear black gloves. That said, the Italian gialli were definitely influenced by Hitchcock and the emphasis was much more on elaboratem heavily ritualized set pieces that happened to be built around death as opposed to being focused on the actual death itself.
(I still claim that the whole gialli genere is probably the most culturally Catholic film genre around, even more so than the Omen films and all the various Exorcist rip-offs.)
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Absolutely. “Halloween” (without which there would be no Jason, for better or worse; I’m leaning toward “better”) was excellent. And as is so often the case with the best horror films, mostly atmosphere and tension, thanks to the Master Carpenter. 🙂
Your murder mystery observation brought “The Bird With The Crystal Plumage” to mind. It fits that description exactly.
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Lisa Marie, as a matter of fact, nunsploitation is the most culturally Catholic of film (sub)genres. I’d love to see you review “Behind Convent Walls”. I seriously need to check out more nunsploitation flicks–I have an odd nun fetish and was tickled pink when I discover there was a whole nunsploitation genre. I was just about to started collecting a serious amount of nunsploitation DVDs, but I got sidetracked and instead veered off into Polish filmmaker Walerian Borowczyk for a while (due to seeing “Behind Convent Walls”). That of course led me to Walerian Borowczyk’s “The Beast”–good fun G-rated cinema.
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Lol, yes, the Beast is fun for the whole family. 🙂
I’m familiar with the trailer for Behind Convent Walls as it’s on the 42nd Street Forever Compilation DVD but I haven’t seen the actual film. I do, however, have one nunsploitation film in my film collection — Bruno Mattei’s The Other Hell.
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Well, I wouldn’t quite go as far as to describe the Friday the 13th films as being “my favorite horror films.” I find them interesting more from a cultural point of view than from a cinematic point of view. If you asked me what my favorite horror films were, you’d hear names like, “Robert Wise’s The Haunting, the Exorcist, the films of Mario Bava, Dario Argento, and Jean Rollin…” Of course, then I’d go on to mention Lucio Fulci’s brilliant Beyond trilogy and I’d end up with either a Shriley Temple or Diet Coke all over my dress.
“Oh my God! My dress is ruined!” I would shout as the scene turned into yet another installment in the American Pie franchise.
As for my future as a fanchise reviewer: As of right now, I’m debating whether or not to devote my next few reviews to the Sex and the City franchise… 🙂
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Well, one could call you many things (most of them good :)), but “Philistine” is certainly not among them. Your referencing of classics “The Haunting” and “The Exorcist”, and of the more esoteric Bava and Rollin would establish sufficient “creep cred” (enough even to buffer your faulty Fulci fondness) to avoid a soft drink bath.
However, if you were to make good on that “Sex And The City” threat, I make no promises as to my comportment, should we meet.
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Sex and The City franchise….
Well, it’s sure to bring in a different demographic to the site. xD
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Addendum (more or less on the same topic):
I came across a film the plot of which made I thought might appeal to you. It’s called “They Don’t Cut The Grass Anymore”. Here is the IMDB synopsis –
“Two Texas gardeners, who object to Northern attitudes and lifestyles, venture northward to cut lawns, trim hedges, and murder and mutilate Northern Yuppies. “
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0304818/
It doesn’t say whether or not they spend any time in Vermont. 🙂
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Lol, I’ve actually seen that one a few times whenever I’ve been browsing the horror section at Fry’s. I may have to check it out now. 🙂
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I, as a non-contributor, would like to throw my vote towards “Sex and the City” write-ups before the Bond films. Charlotte’s hilarious, and once you see the dancer “transform” into an ape, you can pretty much give up on 007. Or when Jaws dies. Whichever comes first.
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🙂 Thank you for your support! 🙂
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This was a very good write up about my favourite horror series. Thanks for this. Will read the other posts in the next couple of days.
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“Friday the 13th” is one of the many horror franchises that not only advanced American mythology (as you have stated), but it also acted as an easily consumable lesson. There was some information about the following either in the “F13” or “Nightmare on Elm Street” special features: These movies act like modern Aesops Fables. They are dark and scary, but they give valuable life lessons: Do not do drugs. Do not drink. Do not engage in premarital sex. It is always the boring virgin who stays true to her own convictions even though her friends try to get her to compromise herself that wins in the end. When these movies were first premiering, women’s Christian organizations actually stood up for them on that point. They were happy to see these important lessons being taught to such a large and young audience.
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You bring up a good point here. It is interesting that Friday the 13th rewards a somewhat puritanical life-view, ironically validated the beliefs of many of those which would denounce the series for its violence and sexuality (protective parents, Christian groups). It is always the characters who engage in drugs and sex who are invariably punished by the machete of justice. Strangely enough Jason is a pioneer of conservative social issues. And although I would agree the earlier films in these series (Halloween included) are generally better, I found myself enjoying (to my surprise) Jason Goes to Hell. It was undeniably stupid in ways but it had a sense of humor that was lacking in several of its predecessors.
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I agree. “Hell” and “X” we’re outright so-bad-they’re-good movies.
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Lisa Marie, I wasn’t too interested in your series of “Friday the 13th” reviews, mainly because I’ve hardly seen any of the films. However, they shall stand as a good reference point, if/when I check out all the chapters that you’ve reviewed (undoubtedly they shall crank out many more Jason Vorhees films–I might just stick to the ones that you have recapped).
I really do have a hard time taking all of this talk about the allegorical elements of the Friday the 13th” franchise seriously. Okay, so I’ve hardly seen any of them, but for the most part, slasher films are slasher films. The same goes for George A. Romero and the “deep” messages in his “Dead” series. “Day of the Dead”, which is possibly the most overrated horror movie of all-time (I was trying not to fall asleep in the cinema!) and all the talk about the zombies being stand-ins for “mindless consumers”–bleh! The thing about Romero is that he’s pretty heavy-handed with this sort of stuff, to the point where characters exchange very forced sounding dialogue to explicitly get the “point” across to the audience.
I would debate that American sports is a greater source of American mythology than the old urban legends. Such sports mythology translates beautifully to cinema (e.g. “Rocky”, “The Natural”). When people outside America think of American mythology, we don’t tend to think about urban legends. We’re more likely to consider sports heroes and rock stars and the legends associated with them.
Am I the only one who enjoys the “Death Wish” movies here? I’m always puzzled at how many folks get stuck right into the “Elm Street”, “Halloween”, “Friday the 13th” franchises et al, but nobody much discusses “Death Wish”. Okay, it’s not horror, but it’s a frachise, and let’s face it, most slasher movie nuts are looking at slasher flicks mainly for novelty deaths. And I know that I’m in the minoity here, but I believe that the original “Death Wish” is a rather important film, much like “Dirty Harry”. It really makes you think about crime-and-punishment, vigilantes and the civil rights of the victims versus those of violent offenders.
Besides, they’ll never do the “Death Wish” saga again–no reboots allowed. Charles Bronson was the only man for the role of Paul Kersey. Sly Stallone talked about a remake of sorts but dropped the idea. There was that Kevin Bacon film and the one with Jodie Foster–neither drew me to the cinema. Neither film had the audacity to be called “Death Wish” because even Hollywood knows that Charles Bronson was, is, and always shall be, the “Death Wish” franchise.
So I say that there ought to be a “Death Wish” retrospective on this site.
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I don’t know if I would do an entire “franchise” review for all the Death Wish films (because, quite frankly, they tend to pop up on AMC here a lot and they’ve never been able to hold my attention for more than a few minutes — with the exception of this first one which I got on DVD on a whim mostly and I was then surprised to discover that it was actually a pretty effective film and that Jeff Goldblum was really scary when he was younger) but I might review a few of my favorite vigiliante style films — like Ms. 45, the first Death Wish, Fighting Mad, and a few others.
Jodie Foster’s The Brave One would not be found on that list because I think it is, honestly, one of the worst films ever made.
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“Death Wish” is an utterly awesome film with a terrific final frame. I’m not sure if Jeff Goldblum would be my choice to play a thug. Still, he makes an impression.
I think that Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs (Freddy ‘Boom Boom’ Washington of “Welcome Back, Kotter” fame) was a much more convincing thug, in the scene where he and a pal attempt to rip-off Paul Kersey on the steps at Riverside Park (“Come down and bring us the money, honey!”). Not sure how the absence of ‘Boom Boom’ from school would’ve been explained the next day. But I’m sure that Gabe Kotter could’ve squeezed a cute joke out of it.
“I guess ‘Boom Boom’ got the ‘Bang Bang'” (cue audience laughter).
“Death Wish II” has an awesome Jimmy Page soundtrack and a final line that even tops the final frame from the original “Death Wish” movie. Mister Page would also work on the music for Part 3.
I’m not sure how you can go past Parts 3 and 4–they’re regarded pretty highly of their type (the “type” being wildly over-the-top exploitation actioners). Alex Winter (from the “Bill and Ted” films) is in Part 3–he’s terribly unconvincing as a hood, but there’s something wickedly funny about watching Paul Kersey mow him down. Part 4 also has a paper mache Danny Trejo getting blown up–look quickly for it, and then there’s the classic “sandwich” line from Kersey.
Part V attempts to pass off Toronto as New York City, and the credits have this awful “made for video” look to them. Also, Paul Kersey should’ve been allowed a cooler exit from the series. That said, Part V does have at least two really inventive novelty deaths, probably to make up for the fact that Kersey is probably a lousy shot in his old age, and can barely run. That said, I always bought Charles Bronson as Paul Kersey.
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Fantastic, Lisa! Loved it
Loved it
Loved it
X 11
Yes, do this again as many times as you want, with whatever franchise or genre strikes your fancy. And please don’t hesitate to re-post similar offerings (if you’ve done any) from the past for those who may have missed them!
🙂
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